The high speed handling of an item such as documents of commerce, i.e., checks, fabricated of paper of varying thickness and size, created a number of problems not the least of which is that of sorting such items and/or stacking the sorted items in pockets or bins without collision, interference or blockage due to the lack of stiffness, rigidity or column strength of many if not most such items.
Electromechanical paper-item handling apparatus is generally old and well known in the art, all such pieces of equipment suffer from the mechanical inertia build up of mechanical parts as the apparatus is run at higher and higher speeds. This places extremely tight tolerance limits on the capability of the machine to respond quickly and accurately to gate selection and/or pocket stacking thereby limiting the overall speed at which the apparatus can be operated.
Electrical and electronic phenomenon are generally inertialess, no moving parts are required and thus no mechanical inertia build up is encountered. Electrostatic forces and electrical fields can be combined in such a manner as to cause movement of items at high speeds within limits without regard to the size and/or thickness of the item thereby enabling the construction and operation of item handling apparatus which is capable of extremely high speeds.